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Monday, November 07, 2011

Canon C300 and RED Scarlet-X latest news

Inside the C300 is a system of 4 glass ND filters which have 0, 2, 4 and 6 stops of light blocking capability. The filters have to be used individually they cannot be stacked together and they are electronically moved into place at the push of one of the side buttons on the camera. If you happen to be on location and the electronic motor system breaks, Canon have designed a a small hatch on the right side of the camera that can be opened to allow a screwdriver to turn the gears and change the filters.

The Scarlet X has a larger sensor than the Canon C300, but you won’t be using it all to make movies. You can only achieve 24 fps at 4K and below—where the window you’re shooting to is actually smaller than the C300’s near exact match to the Super 35 frame width.

These are interesting times for filmmakers – the tools keep getting better
| Vincent Laforet | Blog
Vincent posts his thoughts on the two cameras, the importance of competition, the image quality of the C300 vs the 5D Mark II, and on the pricing of the RED and Canon cameras. He thinks the C300 is worth the price, and the Scarlet-X will end up costing almost as much once fully kitted out, but he does think RED has the mental advantage:

I think that while (in the end) the RED Scarlet will likely cost as much, if not slightly more than the Canon C300 when it comes to shooting it on any production big and small – Jim Jannard’s pricing of the base kit gives RED an advantage for what is on paper, clearly a higher performing camera (4K resolution at 25fps and in RAW.) The RED system is also built to be upgradable with new sensors and logic boards over time (not to mention accessories and modules.) The C300, Sony F3, and HDSLRs have not been built to have their sensors etc changed at a later date. Another important consideration.

With calmer heads, FilmmakerIQ’s John Hess explains why the Canon CF300 will be a more stable and useful platform than the newly announced RED Scarlet, at least in the near term.

The Truth About 2K, 4K and The Future of Pixels | John Galt | Creative Cow
With sensor size becoming such a "big" thing, here's an article looking at what's behind sensor specs for single-chip cameras, the Bayer pattern, and whether 4K is really 4K.

So 4K is not these 8 mega pixel or 9 mega pixel or 10 mega pixel CMOS images for the Bayer pattern where they add up all the pixels in a row and say hey, we got 4K. The great perpetrators of that mythology have been RED and Dalsa. That's why I call these “marketing pixels." It's intentional obfuscation. Because they really do nothing to improve image quality. They may improve sales volume. But they don't do anything to quality.

Poll: Which Camera Announcement Impressed You the Most? | Poll
| The Digital Visual
A poll on which announcement interested people the most. No totals are provided, so no idea how many people have actually voted, but at the moment the RED Scarlet-X has 53%, while the C300 and 4K DSLR concept are tied at 22%.